After missing the first day back at Ulpan, because my dad miscalculated and thought it was the High Sabbath after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, I returned to school. It was so nice to be back, but there was no easing into it. As soon as class started, my teacher went all out Hebrew. I couldn’t understand a lot of the things we were learning, but I was still able to pick things up along the way.
I wrote last week that I had gotten a job offer at the local date shop. I didn’t expect to start it until the next week; but after getting a text on Monday, I ended up starting the following day. I was so excited, I couldn’t sleep.
As I walked to my new job, I was surprisingly not nervous. In fact, it was as though I was going there to pick up a few things for my mom like I usually did. Except, instead of going there to buy things, I was put straight to work. My first duty was packing dates into containers and making sure they were the correct weight. It was fun doing the behind the scenes in a store I always shop in.
While I was working, there was terrible music playing on the computer in the room. Since no one was with me, I went over and changed the music to Tori Kelly. It was nice to have some good music playing while I worked.
After working alone for an hour, two other employees came to help me. As we worked, we started getting to know one another. It was so much fun to practice my Hebrew and learn new words along the way. I think this is the perfect time to have a job because I’m able to put the things I learned at Ulpan into practice. It is also a great environment to work in, everyone is so nice and patient with me.
The three hours I worked that day went by in a flash. I was actually sad when it was over but very encouraged when the owner, Enbal, asked if I could come the next day to work. It was great to know I had somewhere to go after Ulpan to learn more and do something worthwhile.
The next day was one of the busiest days I’ve had in a long time. I went to Ulpan, rushed home, grabbed my detox juice, ran out the door, drove to town, went to my army appointment, met up with my grandparents to pick out a waffle maker, rush out of town to get to work, worked, drove home to get my homework finished, and then make dinner for everyone. It was crazy! I can’t get over how much energy I actually had to do it all. I got everything done I needed to and still had time to crash on the couch and watch San Andreas with my family.
During my army appointment, I learned more about what will happen when I arrive at boot camp. Hopefully, if what the girl told me is true, I will be put into a group with people that know as much Hebrew as I do. It was interesting to hear what was said, but also nerve-wracking to know that I can’t get out of going into the army until I’m at boot camp. I’m really nervous about my draft date getting closer, but I know that YHVH is watching over me and knows exactly what is going to happen.
Work that day was really tough. Along with feeling nervous after my army meeting, there was another girl working at the shop. Instead of being like the other workers, who are really nice and hard workers, this girl was very lazy and had a really bad attitude.
I prayed the entire time I was working along side her that she would either go do another job in another room or just leave altogether. I didn’t want to have bad thoughts toward this girl since it says in the Bible to love everyone, but I couldn’t shake the bad vibes she was letting off. It was bad enough I had to work alongside her bad energy, but it was torture when she started listening and singing to The Black Eyed Peas.
Thankfully, YHVH answered my prayers and the girl left because she didn’t want to work anymore. I don’t know how anyone could be like that, it's like she was doing the owners a favor by being there. If she wasn’t there, I probably could’ve done her work faster than she did. Along with doing my jobs, I had redo everything she did because she was filling up the tubs at the wrong weight.
It’s definitely a big test of my faith to work alongside a girl who is the total opposite of me. I know there’s always going to be one person you don’t get on with at a job, so I guess I should be pleased that it’s with the girl who only comes once a week. Maybe I’m meant to reach out to her somehow.
When she left, it was like the atmosphere changed. I started talking to my other co-worker and practicing more of my Hebrew. We laughed and enjoyed ourselves as we worked, something I wasn’t doing when the other girl was with us. When my co-worker left to room to get more boxes of product, I was finally able to run over to the computer and changed to music to For King and Country. It was so relieving to not have to listen to The Black Eyed Peas anymore.
Amazingly, the next day I still had lots of energy to go to Ulpan, learn, come home, and go to work. This detox has been great at keeping my immune up and my energy going.
Thursday was a much better work day since the lazy girl wasn’t there. I was even able to play Hillsong while I worked. It was funny to have worship music playing while my other co-workers were in the packing room with me.
By the time I’d finished work and my homework on Thursday night, I was exhausted. I felt my energy exit my body, leaving me with just enough to make a small salad and collapse on the couch. I crawled to bed that night, falling asleep a couple seconds after my head hit the pillow.
On Friday, I still didn’t have all my energy back, but I had enough to clean the bathrooms, wash the floors, and organize the apartment. In the evening, I got a second wind and was able to make a really tasty raw taco salad and raw banana ice cream. It was really cool to see how the ingredients came together, and a bonus that they tasted amazing.
I think this week has been one of the best weeks I’ve had in a while, even though it left me exhausted. I enjoy working and helping people, so it’s very rewarding to know that I accomplished that this week. When Shabbat came, I could rest in peace knowing that I didn’t waste my time this week and did things I can be proud of.
Yesterday was the last day of my detox. I can’t believe 21 days has come and gone! It seems like I just yesterday I started the detox. I can’t tell you how good it felt to eat hot food. People really do take hot food for granted. I think that was one of the main things I missed the most while on this detox, but now it's over.
Well, not completely over. I still have another 21 days of rebuilding myself. This means that I have to keep the diet of 80% raw and 20% cooked. That should be quite easy, though. I have some really good recipes for raw breakfasts that look yummy, and I can still juice in the afternoons before going to work. The best part is that I’ll be able to eat pizza, burgers, and waffles again!
My grandma arrives early tomorrow morning. She’s on a night flight from Scotland, so my dad has to wake up exceptionally early to pick her up at 6am. I’m so glad I don’t have to make the trip with him.
I hope this will be a good time with my grandma. She’s never visited us in Israel before, so it’ll be nice for her to see our new home. I also think this will be a good rest for her because she’s been working really hard and hasn’t seemed to stop since my granddad passed away 2014.
The week has now begun and I can’t wait to see what YHVH has in store. Last week, He taught me about being gracious, patient and trusting. He’s also showed me how much we need to pray for others and encourage one another daily.
I found out the other day that my old friend, Taylor, has gone off the deep-end and left home to live with her boyfriend and his mom. I definitely saw this coming, but her parents didn’t. Their hearts are breaking with the way she’s living, so I will be praying for her and her family this week.
Another prayer I have for this new week is that YHVH will draw me even closer to Him and show me how I can reach out to others. I don’t want to miss opportunities I have to talk about Him or to be ashamed of my faith. Last week, as I worked, I got really self-conscious about the music I played in front of my co-workers, which made me question how strong my faith really is. I made the big decision to follow God rather than the world last Sunday, but then I was really nervous that my co-workers would hear the words in the songs that were playing and learn that I am a Christian.
I am ashamed that this was one of the struggles I had last week. Your faith should never make you feel self-conscious, you should be able to be confident in your beliefs and not hide the fact that you are a child of YHVH. So, thanks to God’s love for me, I’m learning how to get rid of that self-consciousness and even want my co-workers to ask me questions about God. When I was packing nuts and fruits alone, I loved the fact that I could worship while I worked, so that shouldn’t have changed once my co-workers joined me.
Romans 1:9-10, 16, “For Elohim is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the Good News of His Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you, always asking in my prayers, if at all possible, I shall be blessed by the desire of Elohim, to come to you. For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Messiah, for it is the power of Elohim for deliverance to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of Elohim is revealed from belief to belief, as it has been written, ‘But the righteous shall live by belief.’”